Deadpool & Wolverine never stop annoying me with their cheesy jokes and lack of depth.

Warning: This review contains light spoilers about Deadpool & Wolverine.

There was a brief scene in 2008’s Iron Man where Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury talked about “the Avengers initiative.” It sent some fans into raptures while confusing others by making them wonder, “Wait, who is that guy?” We have arrived at the logical conclusion of this treatment now that 16 years have passed and audiences are still treated like rats pressing a lever to get another piece of food. The entire film Deadpool & Wolverine consists of post-credit scenes. It is a carnival of inside jokes, references to itself, and reality checks with no deeper meaning than to give its audience props for sticking with it. It is the most cynical use of creativity with no drama or stakes. The most disheartening thing is that it might become a billion dollar business.

The first two Deadpool films were always a little less clever than they thought they were, but they were still mildly entertaining enough to basically win me over. This even applied to the PG-13 re-release of Once Upon a Deadpool, with its hilarious Princess Bride wrap-around. Hugh Jackman’s Logan, a.k.a. the X-Men’s Wolverine, teams up with Ryan Reynolds’s Wade Wilson, the “merc with a mouth,” in this third installment, but it is just too cliched, too juvenile, and too annoying to enjoy. Directed by Shawn Levy and featuring a script credited to five screenwriters, this film revels in negative attention while sultryly embracing its “more is more” philosophy. The level of annoyance is astounding.

The narrative opens with Wilson, crushed by his rejection from the Avengers superhero team, leading a dull life with his assortment of misfit friends. (It is a damn shame that Wilson’s buddy Dopinder, the hilarious Karan Soni, only gets about 45 seconds of screen time.) Wilson is taken to a pocket universe by members of the Time Variance Authority, who inform him that he has been “called up” to the big leagues and will be joining the “main timeline” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Wade Wilson also refers to it as such, of course, since Deadpool & Wolverine are obsessed with stopping their own progress in order to make jokes about Hollywood. This is nothing new; in Road to Morocco in 1942, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby made light of Paramount executives, but they understood that a little went a long way. This film just will not stop; it makes the assumption that everyone in the audience is familiar with 20th Century Fox and Disney’s boardroom shenanigans and will understand jokes about what “Feige said” (a reference to producer Kevin Feige). Wilson laments Paul Rudd’s eventual aging when he spots a skull beneath the Ant-Man helmet. A joke concerning Jackman’s recent divorce is also included. He fears he is in the wrong IP when things become a bit too Mad Max-esque. Who is this intended audience? Lawyers for entertainment who watch TMZ?

Stranger still (or maybe braver, to put it in a more positive light), is how these “we know this is a movie” jokes end up serving as the main plot device, going beyond Reynolds’s command to “cue the montage” or to pan up for a really cool shot. Deadpool’s world is about to be wiped out, which is why the local TVA fella Paradox (a mincing Matthew Macfadyen) tries to drag him from it to the “main” world. (The reason is because Logan, as seen in the movie Logan, died, and he was a load-bearing character.) Wilson should be happy, Paradox believes, but he has to go to other universes to find another Logan in order to save his friends. (In a way, this makes sense.) He takes hold of a very inebriated and grumpy Logan, but when Paradox discovers the scheme, he exiles them both to The Void.

This is the point at which the self-reference becomes excessive. Deadpool and Wolverine cross paths with discarded characters from the Fox adaptations of Marvel films in The Void. And one guy who was merely spreading rumors, too. Not to give anything away, but when Elektra (Jennifer Garner) appears in the film, it is only fitting that Ben Affleck should have a meltdown, which is exactly what happens.

This constant reliance on navel-gazing is tiresome, and the story lacks any sense of urgency because everything is so surface-level. None of the characters are real, so the main quest—if you can even remember it through all the side stories—has no real purpose. The fact that Deadpool and Wolverine are immortal, which exacerbates the issue, is demonstrated in three extended sequences where they repeatedly stab one another ineffectively while outrageous needle drops play. (It’s AC/DC, Madonna, and a number from Grease.) One would be acceptable. Ironically, three is overkill given that no one is killed.

Reynolds’s flirtatious remarks about being gay are another thing that has truly outstayed its welcome. The show takes pride in its subversive, pornographic dialogue (mug for the camera—I just said that X was in a Disney film, what the heck?). , but you know what? Reynolds does not appear to be kissing other men. I suppose that would be crossing too much ground. I would not stop someone from interpreting the Deadpool phenomenon as homophobia by overcorrection.

It is a little unfair to say that I thought this movie was terrible. A few jokes will definitely stick when you hurl 7,000 jokes at the screen in the hopes that one will catch on. As such, I did laugh several times; I am not a monster. Additionally, there is a recurrent scene in which Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin), the evil Empress of The Void and Charles Xavier’s twin sister, penetrates people’s minds by forcing her fingers into their skulls. This film features extremely humorous and eerie special effects. It’s a neat bit.

Any universe will always have Jackman because he is captivating. The 55-year-old Australian performer is incredibly hot in the big finish, and even though you can never be sure what is computer-generated imagery in a Hollywood production, the man is absurdly muscular. Aside from his physical prowess, he also has a few scenes in this featherweight tale where he must “act,” and he succeeds in giving those sequences some depth. (Sadly, Reynolds does not fare as well when the spotlight is on him.)

I apologize for being a prude and not being a fan of Wolverine and Deadpool. I promise that I do not intentionally irritate people. Simply put, I think a movie should be a little more thoughtful if it is going to dominate the conversation. The two hours of cheap jokes in the film culminate in the largest Family Guy episode ever. It tries so hard to be smart, but all it manages to do is make you cringe. Luckily, in case you have not seen it yet, Twisters is still running. Grade: C-